NAFTALI BENNETT

A former Israeli prime minister who served briefly as a mediator at the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine says he drew a promise from the Russian president not to kill his Ukrainian counterpart.

The apparent comeback of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the dramatic rise of his far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies in Israel’s general election this week have prompted little more than shrugs from many Palestinians.

A West Bank settler will for the first time become the chief of staff of Israel's military, the enforcer of the country's 55-year-old military occupation.

The Iranian-made drones that Russia sent slamming into central Kyiv this week are complicating Israel's balancing act between Russia and the West.

The Biden administration says it has responded to Iran’s latest offer to resume its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, but neither side is offering a definitive path to revive the agreement, which has been on life-support since former President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.

The Biden administration is expected to weigh in this week on Iran’s latest offer to resume its compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but neither side is offering a definitive path to revive the agreement, which has been on life-support since former President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.

Israel’s caretaker prime minister appears to have taken a gamble with his preemptive strike against Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza, less than three months before he is to compete in general elections to retain his job.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power.

President Joe Biden has opened a Mideast visit by offering anxious Israeli leaders strong reassurances of his determination to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

Joe Biden took office looking to reshape U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

Israel’s parliament has voted to dissolve itself, triggering the country’s fifth election in just over three years.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says he will not run in upcoming elections, after he led a broad but fragile coalition government that came unraveled barely a year after taking office.

Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has thanked Turkey for its cooperation in foiling attacks against Israelis and warned Israel would not “sit idly by’ in the face of threats from Iran to its citizens.

The leaders of Israel’s broad-based but severely weakened coalition government have thrown in the towel this week, after barely 12 months in office.

In a 10-year political career, Yair Lapid has transformed himself from upstart political novice to feisty opposition leader to the savvy operator who toppled longtime leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

An Israeli Cabinet minister says the country's outgoing coalition government will fast-track a bill this week to dissolve parliament, setting up the country for its fifth elections in three years.

Israel’s weakened coalition government has announced that it will dissolve parliament and call new elections.

President Joe Biden will make his first trip to the Middle East next month with visits to Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia.

Washington is reversing a Trump administration policy on U.S.-Palestinian relations, a move that comes before a possible visit by President Joe Biden to Israel.

Israel's prime minister is on a surprise visit to the United Arab Emirates.

The Israeli government has failed to pass a bill extending legal protections for settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has defended an annual march that celebrated Israel’s takeover of east Jerusalem and was marked by violence and anti-Palestinian racism.

Israel has advanced plans for the construction of more than 4,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank.

Israel's embattled prime minister is vowing to continue to lead the country as his shaky government limps into parliament's new summer session on the verge of collapse.

Israel's interior minister says plans will be advanced for the construction of 4,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli security forces are carrying out a massive manhunt for two Palestinians suspected in a mass stabbing near Tel Aviv that left three Israelis dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says he accepted an apology from Russian President Vladimir Putin for controversial remarks about the Holocaust made by Moscow’s top diplomat.

Israel has summoned the Russian ambassador over comments made by the Russian foreign minister about Nazism and antisemitism.

A bomb scare set off scenes of panic at Israel’s airport after an American family showed up with an unexploded artillery shell they had found in the Golan Heights.

Israeli police say that the family of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has received a death threat and a bullet in the mail for the second time this week.

Israel has come to a halt to honor the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Israel's leaders say the military's laser defense system has successfully intercepted drones, mortars, rockets and anti-tank missiles in recent tests.

Officials say Israeli forces have shot and killed two Palestinians, including an unarmed woman, in confrontations across Israel and the occupied West Bank.

A third Israeli has died following the attack by a Palestinian man who opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv.

A Palestinian opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv, killing at least two people and wounding several others.

Israeli forces have raided a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, setting off a gunbattle.

Three deadly attacks in Israel in a week are raising doubts over Israel’s approach to its conflict with the Palestinians.

Israeli officials say at least five people have been killed by a gunman who opened fire in a crowded city in central Israel.

Israel has hosted the foreign ministers of four Arab nations and the United States in a bid to strengthen its position in a rapidly shifting Middle East.

The militant Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a shooting in central Israel that police say killed two people and wounded four.

Israel's prime minister has tested positive for the coronavirus and is working from home after he held a series of meetings, including with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Israeli authorities say a pair of gunmen have killed two people and wounded four others in a shooting spree in central Israel, before they were killed by police.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will try to use his three-nation tour of the Middle East and North Africa to reassure wary Israelis and Arabs that the Biden administration is committed to the region’s security at a time when Washington is confronting multiple foreign policy challenges.

Israeli police say a knife-wielding Arab man has killed four people and seriously wounded two others in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is prepared to discuss a commitment from Ukraine not to seek NATO membership in exchange for a cease-fire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and a guarantee of Ukraine’s security.

Mike Pence spent more than four years standing in President Donald Trump’s shadow, refusing to criticize or allow sunlight between them.

Ukraine’s president has called on Israel to take a stronger stand against Russia, delivering an emotional appeal that compared Russia’s invasion of his country to the actions of Nazi Germany.

Hundreds of thousands of people have participated in the funeral of a prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbi in the central Israel city of Bnei Brak.

Vladimir Putin has again painted his enemies in Ukraine as “neo-Nazis,” even though the country has a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust and who heads a Western-backed, democratically elected government.

Iran has converted a fraction of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium into material that can detect cancers and other diseases.

Just a year ago, Naftali Bennett was struggling for political survival.

LVIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian government official says Russian warships fired missiles and artillery at the Ukrainian sea coast to the south of Odesa around midnight.

The secretary-general of the United Nations is warning that Russia’s war on Ukraine is harming poor developing countries that face skyrocketing food, fuel and fertilizer prices.

Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke with two far-right Israelis with past links to a banned Jewish terror group during a visit to a hard-line settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has become the first leader from Israel to visit Turkey in 14 years.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has thanked Israel for its efforts to end Russia's war with Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assured Lithuania and Latvia of NATO protection and American support.

Most of the world is shunning President Vladimir Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has entered its 12th day following what Ukrainian authorities described as increased shelling of encircled cities and another failed attempt to evacuate civilians from the port of Mariupol.

Israel's prime minister is assuming the unlikely role of mediator between Russia and Ukraine with his surprise visit to Moscow.

Australia’s prime minister has described Russia and China’s closer relationship as opportunistic rather than strategic.

The Russian military assault on Ukraine went into its fifth day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has put his nuclear forces on increased alert, escalating tensions further as Putin's military presses its invasion of Ukraine.

The world’s attention has been focused on Ukraine, but the Biden administration has been racing toward restoring the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran.

Israel’s prime minister has criticized an emerging deal over Iran's nuclear program.

Australia has added the U.S.-based far-right extremist group National Socialist Order and plans to add the entirety of the Palestinian group Hamas to its list of outlawed terrorist organizations.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is flying to the Gulf state of Bahrain.

Israel says its security forces killed three Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus who had been responsible for recent shooting attacks.

Israel's prime minister says the country is speeding up the rollout of a “new generation” of missile defense technology to help protect the country from rocket attacks.

Amnesty International says Israel has maintained “a system of oppression and domination” over the Palestinians going all the way back to its establishment in 1948, one that meets the international definition of apartheid.

Israel’s figurehead president has met the powerful crown prince of Abu Dhabi on the first official visit to the United Arab Emirates by the country’s head of state.

Several dozen impoverished elderly Israelis, among them Holocaust survivors, received food donations from a charity ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

A retired Israeli general has emerged as one of the country's most vocal critics against settlers in the occupied West Bank.

The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization says the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, including deaths, hospitalizations and lockdowns, could be over this year if huge inequities in vaccinations and medicines are addressed quickly.

An Israeli hospital says preliminary research indicates a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine provides only limited defense against the omicron variant that's raging around the world.

Arab politician Mansour Abbas broke a longstanding taboo when he joined Israel’s governing coalition last year.

Police in England say they have arrested two teenagers in their investigation into an armed British national holding four people hostage during a 10-hour standoff at a Texas synagogue.

Israel’s Health Ministry says more than 500,000 people have received a 4th vaccine dose.

Israel’s fragile governing coalition has moved to resolve a crisis over tree-planting on disputed land in the Negev desert.

Israel says coronavirus infections in the country have spiked to a new record high since the start of the pandemic.

Oregon reported more than 9,700 new cases of COVID-19 from the holiday weekend on Monday and smashed a previous record for weekly coronavirus cases with an average of about 2,400 new daily cases as the omicron variant took hold.

Egyptian officials are pushing for Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip to rein in hostilities and adhere to a cease-fire in place since the war in May.

Israel has approved a fourth vaccine dose for people most vulnerable to COVID-19, becoming one of the first countries to do so as it braces for a wave of infections fueled by the omicron variant.

Israel's prime minister says he doesn't oppose a “good” nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Israeli authorities say bird flu has killed thousands of migratory cranes and forced farms to kill over 500,000 chickens to contain the outbreak.

The United Arab Emirates has recorded its biggest jump in daily coronavirus cases in months, a spike that comes as the omicron variant races across the globe and the Mideast tourist hub prepares to welcome hordes of tourists for the holidays.

Israeli ministers have agreed to ban travel to the United States, Canada and eight other countries amid the rapid, global spread of the omicron variant.

Israel’s prime minister is calling on parents to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus as the new omicron variant showed signs of spreading.

The Israeli prime minister's office says a person on the Israeli leader's flight back from the United Arab Emirates has tested positive for COVID-19.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has made a historic trip to the United Arab Emirates, the first visit to the country by an Israeli premier.

The long-delayed resumption of nuclear talks with Iran has gotten off to a rough start.

Israel’s Justice Ministry says that two police officers have been brought in for questioning following the shooting death of a Palestinian who stabbed an Israeli man in east Jerusalem.

Iran is striking a hard line after just one day of restarted talks in Vienna over its tattered nuclear deal.

Can the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers be restored.

Israel's prime minister says the country is “on the threshold of an emergency situation” after authorities detected its first case of a new coronavirus variant in a traveler who returned from Malawi.

Israel has begun administering the coronavirus vaccine to children age 5 to 11.

Small dovish parties that support Palestinian statehood are back in Israel's government after years in the country's political wilderness - but they are finding their influence is limited.

An Israeli couple held by Turkey on suspicion of espionage has returned home after they were released from a weeklong detention.

The Palestinians have slammed Israel for rejecting the promised reopening of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has watched from the sidelines as the government that toppled him after 12 years in power passed a national budget, dealing a major blow to his hopes of a swift comeback.